It has nothing to do with computer memory, but everything to do with timing… as promised, audio versions of my commentaries will soon be up on my site, but they’re not quite ready yet, including this one. Check back later this week and it ought to be up… I’ll start with the most recent commentaries and work backward. In the meantime, here’s the text version of my commentary for Acherai Mot-K’doshim. Or listen to it!

Shabbat Shalom.

Our parashahs for today are Acharei Mot or “After the death” and K’doshim or “Holy ones,” covers Leviticus chapters 16 through 20. As our reading begins, the L-RD declares a new appointed time for Moses and the children of Israel to celebrate: The Day of Atonement, otherwise known as Yom Kippur.

Interestingly, this appointed time is declared, we are told, in the wake of the death of Aaron’s two sons, Nadab and Abihu, who perished when they offered unauthorized fire before the L-RD, contrary to His commands. We read this in:

Leviticus 16:1-2
The L-RD spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron who died when they approached the L-RD. The L-RD said to Moses: “Tell your brother Aaron not to come whenever he chooses into the Most Holy Place behind the curtain in front of the atonement cover on the ark, or else he will die, because I appear in the cloud over the atonement cover.

This passage may give us a further clue as to why Nadab and Abihu perished as they did. Here, the L-RD tells Moses that Aaron is not to enter the Holy of Holies – or, as the NIV translates it, the Most Holy Place – any time the mood strikes him, or he will die. It can reasonably be inferred that this is part of why Nadab and Abihu perished; they did not simply offer unauthorized fire, but apparently in offering it, did so in the Holy of Holies without making the proper preparations for entering there. And why could no one – even Aaron – enter the Holy of Holies whenever they wanted to, even as close as they were to the L-RD? Because, we are told, the presence of God dwells there and, as we learned last week, not only can the L-RD not allow any sin in His presence, but neither can he allow anything unclean in His presence.

So in establishing this appointed time for dealing with cleansing the people of Israel of their sin, the L-RD is showing His concern for the loss of Nadab and Abihu by establishing some rules to ensure that such a loss of life might not be repeated.

Now, the Day of Atonement is a very important part of the Fall Festival season. It comes seven days after the Jewish New Year, Rosh haShanah, which is two days long but is called “one long day” because no one knows exactly when the New Moon will appear over that two-day stretch. The importance of the Day of Atonement is spelled out in the L-RD’s command to observe it in this week’s reading, beginning in:

Leviticus 16:29-31
“This is to be a lasting ordinance for you: On the tenth day of the seventh month you must deny yourselves and not do any work–whether native-born or an alien living among you–because on this day atonement will be made for you, to cleanse you. Then, before the L-RD, you will be clean from all your sins. It is a Sabbath of rest, and you must deny yourselves; it is a lasting ordinance.

Now, to “deny yourselves” here means that the Day of Atonement is to be a day of fasting. No food shall be prepared or eaten during this time, and with that time now freed up, prayer, repentance and drawing closer to the L-RD becomes the order of the day.

We can learn more about the significance of the Day of Atonement from the sages.

R. Kruspedai said in the name of R. Johanan:
Three books are opened [in heaven] on New Year, one for the thoroughly wicked, one for the thoroughly righteous, and one for the intermediate. The thoroughly righteous are forthwith inscribed definitively in the book of life; the thoroughly wicked are forthwith inscribed definitively in the book of death; the doom of the intermediate is suspended from New Year till the Day of Atonement; if they deserve well, they are inscribed in the book of life; if they do not deserve well, they are inscribed in the book of death.

So, there are seven days between Rosh haShanah and Yom Kippur. And we know the fall festivals are a teaching of the second appearance of Messiah, so how does this all fit together?

Well, Rosh haShanah is also known as the feast of trumpets, and it signifies the catching away of the righteous, the day when we shall go to meet the Messiah Yeshua in the air. We also know that Yom Kippur points to the time of the Great Throne of Judgment, when all who lived will come before the L-RD and be judged according to their deeds. Yet these two appointed times are separated by seven days. Is there significance to these seven days? Of course there is.

You see, these seven days symbolize the time of Jacob’s Trouble – that time which Christians call the Tribulation. And we know that the Tribulation period lasts seven years, after which the judgment begins, kicking off Messiah’s 1,000-year reign on Earth.

So what we have here is indeed a perfect picture of Messiah Yeshua’s return, and in this Day of Atonement, we receive part of the picture of what that day will be like. It is a time, as the Jewish tradition I just shared reflected, when those who are in the book of the Intermediate will either be included with the righteous in the book of life, or included with the wicked in the book of death. They get those seven years, that “week,” and then their time runs out.

There are no more fence-sitters in the reign of Messiah, and the Day of Atonement is when the fate of all – including the intermediate – is decided.

Now, there are some specifics surrounding the offerings for the Day of Atonement which set it apart from all other holidays, most notably the two goats and how they are handled. We read about this in:

Leviticus 16:8-10
He is to cast lots for the two goats—one lot for the L-RD and the other for the scapegoat. Aaron shall bring the goat whose lot falls to the L-RD and sacrifice it for a sin offering. But the goat chosen by lot as the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the L-RD to be used for making atonement by sending it into the desert as a scapegoat.

Now, when most people teach about this sacrifice, they compare this scapegoat to Messiah Yeshua, but that is simply not the case. You really have to dig into the Hebrew language and culture to understand what’s going on here. The Hebrew word used here, translated as scapegoat, is AzAzel.

5799 `aza’zel
• AV – scapegoat 4; 4
1) entire removal, scapegoat
1a) refers to the goat used for sacrifice for the sins of the people

Who is AzAzel? Well, in the limits of a commentary, I can’t go into as much detail as I might like, but Stan has an extensive teaching on this as part of his Feasts of the L-RD series. Briefly, however, we learn the following from:

Encyclopedia Judaica
The great majority of moderns regard Azazel as the personal name of a demon thought to live in the wilderness. The name of a supernatural being mentioned in connection with the ritual of the Day of Atonement. After Satan, for whom he was in some degree a preparation, Azazel enjoys the distinction of being the most mysterious extra human character in sacred Literature.

So, if AzAzel is indeed a name of the Adversary of the L-RD, why would there be any provision made for him in the ceremony of the Day of Atonement? After all, we are to worship the L-RD and have no other gods before him, so what’s with this goat for AzAzel?

Well, first we must pay attention to what is done with this goat. Like all sin sacrifices, these goats are to be a year old and without defect. That being the case, it might even be hard to tell the two goats apart; they could look nearly alike. One is cast for the L-RD and sacrificed as a sin offering; the other is not slain, but is used to make atonement by sending it into the desert.

Now, which of these two goats appears to resemble Messiah more? The goat declared to be for the L-RD and offered as a sin offering? Or the goat declared to be for AzAzel and sent out to perish in the desert? I don’t know about you, but I think the first goat sounds a lot more like Yeshua to me.

So what is the significance of this goat for AzAzel? Well, both goats are the same age, probably about the same size, they look the same and both are without defect; yet one is for the L-RD and the other for this demon, AzAzel. Well, who is it in sacred literature that would appear to be almost the same as the Messiah, but who is destined for destruction, rather than for the remission of sins?

How about the false Messiah?

So, how strong is this connection between the goat for AzAzel and the false Messiah? We read this in:

II Thessalonians 2:3
Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.

Like the Man of Lawlessness spoken of here, the goat for AzAzel is doomed to destruction. His presence in the ceremony is the same as any other element; it is a shadow of what is to come, a shadow of the false Messiah and his fate, which is destruction.

So, it won’t be Yom Kippur for another five months or so. Yet what can we take away from this teaching on the Day of Atonement at this time? Well, we know that the time of Yeshua’s return is drawing closer all the time. Some of those we know are inscribed in the book of life, some in the book of death, and some are in the book of the intermediate.

Perhaps the most important lesson to draw from this is to know that, when that final Day of Atonement arrives, there will be no one left who is in the book of the intermediate. This is spoken of in:

Revelation 3:15-16
I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.

While the Day of Atonement and all of the fall festivals teach of Yeshua’s return, it is the fate of the intermediate, the lukewarm, that is perhaps most critical. The lukewarm are those who know enough about the L-RD, his Messiah, the Torah and all the L-RD’s commands to know what is right, but who do not obey all that the L-RD has commanded them.

As the fate of Nadab and Abihu should teach us, it is a dangerous thing to dwell among the intermediate. I mean, you can’t be in Messiah if he’s just spit you out, can you? And if you’re not in Messiah, then your fate is the same as Nadab and Abihu. They shared in the fate of AzAzel, suffering sudden destruction. Yet the L-RD has provided a Day of Atonement, a Messiah, a way for others to avoid that destruction. Amen?

Shabbat Shalom.

Tags: Acherai Mot, commentary, computer memory, K'doshim